Conservancy Days

DOC Conservancy Days

There are 11 conservancies, or regions, of DOC.  I work for one of the regions, the West Coast Conservancy.  There are 5 districts in the West Coast Conservancy.  This conservancy is long and narrow.  Hokitika, where I work, is smack in the middle of the Conservancy and the area we serve extends from a 3 ½ hour drive north of Hokitika to a 3 ½ hour drive south of Hokitika. 

Conservancy Days is a two day event where employees from the entire Conservancy go to one district to do service projects, network and socialize.   Conservancy Days occur once per year and they are held at each district on a rotating basis.  This year was Hokitika’s turn to host. 

 

We started at 10 AM on Thursday to give people a chance to travel Thursday morning.  We all met at the golf club and divided into eight or so different groups to work on our projects.   

I was assigned to “free plants” at one of the DOC sites near the office.  There were about 16 of us assigned to this site.  Some people spread gavel on trails, others operated small equipment, and others weeded and placed weed mats around young trees that had been planted one or two years earlier.  Other projects included work on DOC and non-DOC sites all used by the community.   For example, one project repainted the exterior wall of the Regent Theater, a historic movie and event theater that is community operated.   

Gathering up into groups for work assignments - note that a very, very typical work outfit around here is gumboots (shin high rubber boots) short short canvas shorts (guys) and a wool sweater. 

Cabbage tree and Kath

Rata Tree Before....

...and after.  I "freed" the tree.  Go rata tree, be FREE, grow TALL.  Southern rata is a special native tree. Like my DOC hat?

 

Lunch Break!

We worked until 4 or so, and then met at the local golf club for drinks, volleyball and dinner.  Dinner was prepared by the Holitika wildlife management staff.  Wildlife managers’ job here is to go out and hunt to kill non-native deer and goats, which are pests because they kill the birds, flora and fauna of New Zealand.  The hunter dudes cooked an incredible dinner for all of us, I’m sure some of it was meat they had shot. 

After dinner, each district showed a power point presentation telling the rest of us about their accomplishments for the year.  These were presented with typical kiwi humor and I got to see so much of the work the DOC does and the personalities of the people who work for DOC.  I left before the DOC band started playing at 10 or so.  I hear the party continued to the wee morning hours.  

I volunteered for breakfast duty and went early to help prepare breakfast for all.  A few people were just waking up and were ready for coffee. After a hearty breakfast everyone was divided into groups to work on cleaning up sections of the nearby beaches. 

That was a pretty easy job because the beaches are pretty clean around here!   However, someone in our group did have a major beach find. 

Beach clean up - not much but driftwood on this beach.

The big find was a buried refrigerator. These three were determined to remove it and dispose of it properly.  Their mission was accomplished.

 

There are a total of 3,000 employees at DOC, 325 work in the West Coast Conservancy, about 40 in Hokitika.  Compare this to 22,000 NPS employees, 6,000 IMR employees and 225 in our building in Lakewood.  So in regard to the number of employees, DOC and the West Coast Conservancy are much smaller than the NPS.  I imagine that makes something like Conservancy Days more feasible here than at the NPS, but it would be nice to have something similar at home. 

The Mildford Track - One of New Zealands Great Walks (hikes)

The Milford Track – an awesome hiking and social experience in New Zealand’s fiordland

Fiord – otherwise known as fjord – defined as a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.

The Milford Track is a 4 day, 3 night, 53.5 km tramp (hike) thorough the fiordland area of the South Island.   This is one of New Zealand’s 8 Great Walks and GREAT it is! Tramping to huts is ingrained in New Zealander culture.  It’s the same as backpacking but easier because you don’t need to carry a tent or sleeping pad.  There are different levels of service at the 950 huts in the country.  Each Great Walk hut is staffed by a DOC hut warden. They have toilets (many are flush!), running water, stoves, lights and mattresses. The wardens do it all, maintenance, interpretation, information source and a “ranger talk”.  They are amazing and many of the DOC staff I work with in the office proudly tell me about when and where they were a hut warden.   

This track is unique because people can only walk it in one direction and there are only three huts for people who are not on tracks with a paid guide.  All these trampers have to stay at these three huts for the three consecutive nights.  The huts hold 40 people, so the same 40 people are hiking the same section of track each day and sleeping in the same location for all three nights.  This creates a unique social aspect of hiking this track.   We shared so much over 4 days with our 40 walking partners:  hiking, admiring views, observing, listening to and whistling with the birds and ducks, taking photos, discussing food, eating food, sleeping, brushing teeth, playing cards, swimming, travel stories, travel plans, backgrounds and general appreciation of what an incredible experience we were all sharing.  It was a mixed group of kiwis and international visitors.  

We ran into our “track” friends over and over again in the days following the hike and exploring nearby Te Anau, Queenstown and Glenorchy.  We met a family on the track that knows Tom from previous work adventures at DOC and Antarctica  They graciously invited us to stay with them at their home for two nights while we were in Queenstown.  Yet another example of hospitable, friendly kiwis. 

The huts cost about $50/night, kids free (even at Lea’s age) and DOC employees free (which I am!).   This track required boat transport to the track start and bus and boat transport at the end of the track.  (Not free for anyone!) By some miracle we didn’t have hardly any rain during our four days of hiking.  This made me happy because I was really worried about being cold and wet but the negative aspect of no rain was that the waterfalls were not at their most spectacular.  

My Description of the Milford Sound

Breathtakingly beautiful

268 inches of rain per year

Waterfalls

Waterfalls

Waterfalls

Clearest rivers I’ve ever seen

Trout visible in the river from the bank

Wet, Wet, Wet

Green, green, green

Birds, birds, birds

Hut 1, hut 2, hut 3

Boat ride to trail head and boat ride back

53.5 km of walking between the boat rides

A great experience and a great accomplishment! 

Getting There

Sorry - this is not the Milford Track...it's the highway over Arthur's Pass from the west coast of the South Island to the east coast of the South Island...our first day away on our 2 week vacation....ain't it purrty?

The very start of the Milford Track

Step 1 - get on boat at the departure point

If you've managed to walk on the dock and step onto the rocking boat with your backpack on perhaps you have passed the initial test for successfully walking the track.

We had a cloudless day to take it all in

Lea's mastering her camera

Sooooo pretty - one of the millions of times this thought ran through our minds



Step 2 - get off boat with pack on


The Track

Let the walking begin - day 1 is easy only 1 1/2 hours of hiking

Noticeably small volume pack from the previous hike in February...thank goodness we went on the one day overnight in February, I leaned alot about what I don't need when backpacking

All the rain makes for luscious green growth

So green it's rubbing off on Lea

Sometimes there was so much foliage it was kind of dark

Happy Hikers

Greg bought a fishing license - hard to see here but the water was SOOOOOOOO clear, we could see the trout.  We could see the lure go right by their little noses.  We understand they can see us too, so they aren't fooled by a fake lure!

If at first you can't succeed, try, try again - see how clear the water is?

Trail Art

Natural Trail Art - I've never seen a purple mushroom before

Easy to see the glacier carved valley in the background here

A section of the track that was cut out slowly by hand

Sometimes we walked together with people - other times alone

Always made me glad to see a loo on the trail - this one has a fly out vault

One of the huts we stayed at was down in this valley

Nearing the top on day three.  Sometimes the track gets so flooded people walk chest high through water, lucky for us that did not happen while we were hiking

Our timing was just perfect...at the peak, the clouds were just lifting, it was magical.

Nice to have a significant marker at the top of a special place

Breath taking

Another example of glacier carved valley

Be free and hike - life is good - our track friends Barry and daughter Fiona

O.K. - the hut warden at the hut we stayed at the night before reaching this toilet, told us about this toilet.  Possibly a toilet with the nicest view in the world.  Then she went into a long description about what happens to all the poo on the trail.  I loved her!  I enjoyed everyone elses reactions.  If they all knew just how much I enjoyed that talk!

Window out the door of the "room with a view"

Dumpling Hut was the third hut on the track

Lots and lots of water falls

The largest waterfall in New Zealand - Sutherland Falls - see the people at the bottom?

We went under the falls!  It was sooooooooo amazing.  You could feel and hear the power of the water.  I've been searching for a waterfall to get under for years and I was NOT going to miss the opportunity to go under this one.  My torso stayed dry with my raincoat on, but I was soaked through everywhere else. 

Our new friend Doug had a waterproof camera so he got some shots of us UNDER the waterfall.  It was really slippery so I felt better having three limbs touching something at all times. 

Walking out from under the falls

More beauteous waterfalls

And more

And more - Greg and Lea took a dip in this one - it was a VERY VERY QUICK dip

No true Kiwi track is complete without a swing bring or 20



The Birds



Whio (feeo) Ducks - endangered and now doing well in the Milford.  The ranger at the start of the track told Greg to "watch out for the Whios" when he was getting fishing instructions.  He was wondering if they were going to attack or something but we just had another miscommunication - watch out = keep an eye out for the very, very, very special ducks, hope you get the special chance to see them mate!

Kea - adapted from parrots origninally.  Cheeky birds (ballsy).  They will take shoes and tear equipment up if you keep that stuff within their grasp.

The underside of the wings of keas still has some parrot colors

One of the many little birds who whistled lovely tunes on the track.

The Huts

One of the big huts that we stayed at.

First hut warden talk included information on the stoat, a rodent that at was introduced to New Zealand but has become a big problem.  It kills birds and is now trapped. There are a lot of resources spent trying to get rid of it.



Greg, Lea, Alex and Kelly.  Alex is from Germany and played cards with us each night.  Kelly is from the US, we had dinner with her the night after the hike.

The sleeping area of hut 2

Dinner prep

Everyone was on a similar time frame...at dinner and breakfast the kicthen area was full.

Another hut...Sleeping areas on right and left

The End

The start of the last day.  Greg was very worried I would not make it to the 2PM boat that took us back to our car so I had to get up early and hike on! I made it by 1:30. 



Mission complete - 1 1/2 hours hiking day 1, 6 1/2 hours hiking day 2, 9 1/2 hours hiking (2 without backpack) day 3, and 6 1/2 hours on day 4.  Followed by 4 days of muscle recovery.

We were all close friends by the time we piled on the boat ride out

Just relax and take it all in